Team Cassie Ainsworth: a farewell RMT (peaked #1)

Hi everyone, I'm George Eliot, and I'm, uh, quitting competitive pokemon. I don’t enjoy playing the game as much as I know most of you do, hence the quitting, but what I do love is teambuilding. This team has been both my favourite to use and my most successful in 5th gen, so I couldn’t leave Pokémon behind without posting it. Some stats; despite being a beyond terrible ladder player, I used an earlier version of this team and one of my old ones to reach #1 on Smogon’s PO server and #3 on Beta near the end of the Genesect playtest, and slightly more recently peaked at #1 Beta just before Christmas. I shared the team around a little bit and I know some other guys who also had success using it (mostly without my permission lol). The changes I've implemented since posting this RMT have made the team even more effective, so thanks to everyone who's given suggestions :)​

My teambuilding philosophy stems from the need to be original. The strongest players can use the bog standard teams to reach the top of the ladders, but I need to take the biggest team matchup advantage I can into battles. Using completely unorthodox teams, like this one, puts experienced opponents in situations they’ve rarely encountered before, taking their intuition out of play. I’m not going to write a teambuilding process because this one just sort of all coalesced one day; instead, I’ll explain how the team works. It’s centred around the idea that Keldeo and Landorus share nearly all the same counters (Celebi, Latias, etc) and nearly all of these can be OHKO’d by a Specs Zoroark. Zoroark primarily masquerades as Keldeo early on, breaking open a defensive core, and leaving the opponent open to a sweep from either Keldeo or Agility Landorus (depending on whether their team is stallish or offensive). The rest of the team works to enable this and cover threats, but I tried to pick members which could also function as useful Illusion partners (Starmie, for instance, also tends to bring in Jellicent / Latias / Celebi). ​

Other stuff. Cassie Ainsworth is awesome, go watch her (she’s a character in the British series Skins). Also there’s probably loads of typos, random references to Thundurus instead of Landorus, and generally bad writing in this RMT, so if you find any let me know and I’ll (probably do absolutely nothing to) fix them. ​

I spent most of my time in BW2 building Hail teams so I guess it’s appropriate that my last RMT should feature Abomasnow. However, this isn’t a true Hail team, it just uses Aboma for its unique combination of anti-weather defense, Ice Shard, and solid wallbreaking ability. I've been using a standard mixed Expert Belt set, but after Conduit suggested using Leech Seed and more bulk to make it easier to sponge rain teams I changed to one of my old custom hail sets. Max attack makes Ice Shard strong enough to revenge kill what it needs to, while also turning Wood Hammer and Focus Punch into surprisingly powerful wallbreaking tools. Wood Hammer is the key move against Sand and Rain teams; the threat of the attack almost invariably leads to the likes of Heatran, Ferrothorn, or Scizor switching in, which can be nailed with Focus Punch. Speaking of Focus Punch, it looks risky to use it without a Sub, but Aboma forces switches so well that it just isn't necessary. On this team it's really essential that Aboma has a way to break Ferrothorn, otherwise standard rainstall builds could crush me, and Focus Punch is by far the best option. If you'll notice, Abomasnow's most common switchins also tend to be Steel resists, so if I can severely weaken or KO them with Focus Punch or just through Leech Seed + Hail stalling, Jirachi typically has an easy time cleaning up lategame. Another useful thing to note is that virtually everything that likes to switch into the yeti is setup fodder for Keldeo, so I often double switch into pony.​

With Zoroark on the team you might think that Hail is counterproductive. In theory it should be against an opponent who watches my ‘mons HP, but I’ve never really had problems with it. First of all, Zoroark is an early game Pokémon; I try to get that crucial Illusion kill within the first ten turns, and it’s very rare (except against hyperoffensive Sun teams) that I’ll want to bring in Aboma before then. Second, it isn’t hard to manipulate how much damage Zoro and its initial Illusion partner take from the snow. Third, having Hail up instead of Sand lets Zoro mimic Landorus effectively. Finally, it just doesn’t matter that much. Specs Zoroark is such a good mon that even if the opponent sees through the Illusion or plays cautiously, virtually anything switching in has a good chance of being crippled. Hail also has some nice advantages. The only common Pokémon which don’t care about either Keldeo or Zoroark are Tentacruel and Amoonguss while in the Rain. Without Abomasnow it could be pretty tough for me to break rainstall (especially Porii Sames’ old team which packs both of those defensive threats). Hail also obviously stops Chlorophyll and Sand Rush mons walking all over me like they do with weatherless offense.​

Starmie really holds the team together, and is probably the most important member after Zoroark. When using Illusion it’s always a good idea to keep hazards off, and when you take into account my two Stealth Rock weaknesses and the possibility of residual Hail damage, you’ll see how crucial she is. Since Rapid Spinning and threat coverage is her main purpose I went for the bulky EV spread, max HP and enough speed to edge out base 110’s. I've forgone a Water STAB on the advice of Kidogo, since it a) really isn't necessary, and b) no opponent will ever assume that it's safe to leave their Heatran in on Starmie. Psyshock hits the Fighting types that I rely on Starmie to kill, as well as Gengar who otherwise spinblocks bulky Mie effectively. The only really interesting part of the set is Reflect Type; it lets you beat Choiced Tyranitar and Scizor, which is pretty huge, especially with the Keldeo + CBTar core as huge as it is. Combined with Recover I'm guaranteed to spin and escape from Pursuit relatively unharmed, while leaving the opponent forced to either pull a blind switch or leave themselves Pursuit-locked. Oh yeah and it lets me spin forever against Ferrothorn, which is the trolliest thing ever to do to rainstall. ​

I know I’ve said Keldeo + Zoro + Landorus is the core of the team, and that’s pretty true, but Starmie + Zoroark is often even more effective against defensive teams. Starmie is great at luring in Keldeo and Landorus' counters, but it benefits as well from the ability to Rapid Spin once Jellicent is removed by a Specs Dark Pulse. The threat of me getting a Rapid Spin off also prevents the opponent from playing cautiously to figure out who Zoroark is masquerading as. A lot of players floating on top of the leaderboard also tend to expect I’ll use Zoro to bluff Keldeo, especially if they’ve played the team before, so choosing Starmie instead often catches them off guard. ​

Jirachi is the last member of my triumvirate of pseudo-defensive Pokémon. I originally used it in the team back when Genesect was allowed by Smogon, when it made a fantastic lure for the annoying bug. Scarf Jirachi with Fire Punch caught on later in the playtest but what made it more effective was using Stealth Rock early on in the match to bluff a standard specially defensive support set. Now that Genesect is gone, though, ScarfRachi still has a place as a reliable SRer, incredibly solid check to some of the most dangerous metagame threats, and an Iron Heading nightmare to face lategame once Steel resists are worn down by Hail and other damage.

Iron Head and Stealth Rock are both obvious. The last two moves aren’t set in stone; I don’t need Body Slam since the team is already fairly fast, and doesn’t have the longevity or means to take advantage of the chance of full paralysis. Fire Punch benefits from the advantage Abomasnow gives me against Rain teams and is especially important for Scizor, which can be an issue lategame, and Ferrothorn, which easily handles Starmie and can rack up residual damage on the team pretty quickly. I usually use U-turn in the last slot, over something like Trick or Ice Punch, because it helps set up Zoroark’s entry and also puts Latias / Celebi, the two most common counters to both Keldeo and Landorus, in a tight spot. The EV’s are quite standard; I really don’t need Jolly because all that would give me is speed ties against +1 Volcarona (who Jirachi can’t touch) and Mence (who is handled by Abomasnow’s Ice Shard). On the other hand, the extra power from Adamant gives me that much more lategame sweeping potential.

Keldeo is the first member of my offensive core and is the designated stallbreaker in conjunction with Zoroark. His solid defensive typing and offensive threat make him really hard to play around, especially for defensively leaning teams. Bluffing Keldeo with Zoroark is really the bread and butter of this team and gets me so many quick and easy wins until high up on the ladder; it’s incredibly simple but incredibly effective, even against careful opponents. It’s a slightly strange set I came up with, as you can see, but I swear it works better than anything else. The defensively leaning EV’s make the most of pony’s surprisingly solid bulk; I switched to them after everybody started running SpDef Rotom-W to handle Rain offense, which beats offensive CM Keldeo but is turned into set up fodder by this version (assuming it switches in as I boost). The speed investment puts me just ahead of Lando-I. Calm Mind is obvious for a Chesto Rest set and lets me run through Zoro-weakened teams efficiently; Scald > Surf > HPump because I <3 accuracy and hax burns. ​

The lack of special attack investment obviously costs me power but I rarely miss it with this team, since Keldeo is usually actually Zoroark in the early game (which is when wallbreaking is most important). Most teams nowadays are prepared to handle Specs Keldeo in rain anyway, so even if I ran 252 SpA and Hydro Pump it often wouldn’t get me anywhere. The only time the lack of power troubles me is against Ferrothorn, who is threatened even less than usual by Sacred Sword, so I have to rely more on Abomasnow / Zoroark and residual damage to get past it. Otherwise though I honestly think this is the best set for Keldeo to run outside of Rain, at least until people figure out how weak Rotom is without investment. Definitely give it a try.​

Since I retired this team the CB Tyranitar + Keldeo combination has really skyrocketed in popularity, which works very similarly to my own core, but I still maintain Zoroark works much much better as a lure than Tyranitar. One reason is sheer power; combined with Trick, Zoro can ruin literally any switchin, while Tyranitar is easily handled by most physical walls (especially now that Hippowdon is growing in popularity again). A Pursuit-locked Tyranitar is setup fodder for the entire metagame; Zoro can whack the SD TechniLoom trying to set up with Dark Pulse and put it within a couple of turns of death after Hail and LO. Tyranitar is also hurt badly by its lack of speed. Celebi can hit it with Grass STAB, U-turn out or just SR before Tar can hit it with Pursuit. Jellicent can Will-o-wisp. Even Latias, Tyranitar’s best target, can Reflect and then set up Calm Mind’s against Pursuit (or tank the Crunch and then switch out). You get the picture. All of Tyranitar’s best targets are increasingly using sets which enable them to get around it. Zoroark doesn’t let this happen. It brings its own problems (frailty, reliance on prediction), but once you get a feel for using it it literally never fails. The third reason to use Zoroark over Tyranitar, which I want to emphasise, is the mindgames. They are delicious. Zoroark’s threat lets you work your way into your opponents thought process faster than any other pokemon. I can’t overstate how amazing having Zoroark on your team is even if you don’t show it at all. ​

I don’t think there’s much else to say about Zoro. The moveset and EV’s are completely standard, and inarguably the most effective in Hail or Sand. I really think it needs a lot more use, and the current metagame is perfectly tailored to it.

So, I finally succumbed and replaced my ol' faithful Agility Thundurus-T with his slicker earthen cousin, and I haven't been disappointed. Thundurus was in the original form of the team as an extra layer of defense against both Tornadus-T and Breloom, but Torn got banned and Breloom is being neglected atm due to Keldeo being a boss. Lando lacks a SR weakness, putting less pressure on Starmie to spin, destroys Sun which was previously problematic, and generally does everything Thundurus did except with more power and suaveness.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure this is the only standard OU set in my team, but it's standard for a reason. Tbh if Drizzle is banned, I expect this guy to follow soon after because he's an absolute steamroller. Agility allows me to clean up once Lando's common counters such as Latias and Celebi are eliminated; Earth Power is the requisite insanely powerful STAB; Focus Blast and HP Ice are for coverage and hit what they need to (well, Focus Blast doesn't, but that's what it's supposed to do anyway).

Thanks to Sheer Force negating Life Orb damage, Landorus makes an insanely effective partner to Zoroark (they take the same Hail and SR damage as well). Landorus represents a huge offensive threat, as does Keldeo (well okay so mine actually doesn't, but the opponent doesn't know that), which really forces the opponent to play to counter the Lando he sees and not the Zoroark he suspects. Doing this doesn't require me to actually bring in Landorus, thus conserving his health for the crucial game-ending sweep, which is another significant advantage of using Zoroark > Tyranitar or any other Pursuiter.

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***Conclusion***​

Writing this RMT has taken me absolutely forever so I’m glad it’s done now. Hope you enjoyed it, or at least managed to skim through it in one sitting :) I’d also love if you wanted to give the team a try and rehabilitate it for the current meta.

This is also essentially my official quit thread from pokemon, so I’d like to give a shout out to all the fantastic guys from this forum and on the simulators who I’ve talked to (in a past incarnation lol) and battled over the last few years; I really had a great time here. Thanks for the great battles, the nice guys on the ladders, and the ragers and hax fiends too I guess for their comic relief.​

Goodbye Pokémon. You’re a terrible game and I hate you forever. Expect me back though for a bit when 6th gen rolls around.

Hello George. First of all congrats on peaking first on the ladder while using such a non-standard team. Using Hail and peeking so high is already an impressive feat, but I don't think I've ever rated a team that's hit 1# with Zoroark, so that's pretty awesome too.

Now, onto the rate. It's obviously a pretty solid team, but I'm think I'm seeing a slight weakness to Sun teams in general. Venusaur in the sun can out speed everything on your team, but it really doesn't find an opportunity to set up. I guess it could set up on Specs Focus Blast, but I think that's a very situational example that rarely (if ever) would happen.

Anyway, my suggestion is that you replace Thundurus-T with Landorus-I. It takes pressure off of Starmie to spin, and it takes the same damage from Hail and SR as Zoroark does, making it easier to bluff. Lando-I rapes most Sun teams, and it would still do work against Rain teams (which is the main reason you haven't switched already).

Overall, I really like how creative this team is in such a stale metagame, and the use of Specs Zoroark is fantastic. Great team (Luvdisc'd).

This team is really fun, props for making it! I use hail a lot (this specific Abomasnow moveset too), and I find it useful to run 148 Speed EVs in order to outspeed and OHKO standard specially defensive Heatran with EQ. Just a thought!

@Shooting Starmie - Thanks for the kind words :) Venusaur struggles to sweep with Abomasnow on the team, but it in combination with Ninetales does put a lot of pressure on Aboma so Landorus > Thundurus is a really good change. My only worry is that it makes me much weaker to water types.

@jpw - This is a pretty good suggestion as well. Heatran is one of the only common things which can stop a ScarfRachi sweep once Hail and SR take their toll, so giving myself another opportunity to lure it is nice. Losing the bulk investment could be costly though, especially if I went with Lando -> Thundurus, because it makes handling Rain even harder; so it might just be better to take advantage of Heatran with Starmie or Keldeo. It's definitely something to test out though, so thanks!

This is an incredibly innovative team you have here, and I'm really liking the look of that Keldeo set. For a team that has been proved successful on the ladder, I don't have many changes, but there are a couple things I'd like to address. The first thing that I notice is a somewhat annoying weakness to Specially Defensive Celebi. Thundurus-T has a hard time breaking through it, while it forces out Keldeo and comes in on Starmie for free. You've pretty much got full reliance on Zoroark to deal with Celebi, and that's not counting Celebi switching out on account of your opponent noticing if you've got Zoroark on the field. I'd suggest dropping Earthquake in place of Blizzard on Abomasnow, which will allow you to secure a 2HKO on Celebi thanks to Expert Belt, while Celebi can't do a whole lot back as Specially Defensive sets don't run Hidden Power [Fire]. I'd argue losing Earthquake isn't that big, especially given that you have enough answers for Heatran / Tentacruel, which you should do after my next change.

If you choose to go with this change, then I'd additionally go with the change of dropping Reflect Type for Recover on Starmie -- while I understand the merits of Reflect Type [beating Scizor, Tyranitar, etc], I'd argue that Recover will have much more consistent use on this team. For a team with a pretty big weakness to Specially Defensive Celebi, it means you're going to be hard pressed against more defensive rain builds carrying Celebi in their defensive core. Recover means that Starmie can continually switch in against stuff like Tentacruel, defensive Politoed, Skarmory and other common members of rain stall builds. Recover also compensates for the loss of Earthquake on Abomasnow, as you have an easier time switching in against Heatran, especially Specially Defensive sets who Starmie can spin for free against and Recover off the damage if the following switch-in doesn't force Starmie out. It also gives you a much better answer for any Keldeo variant, which looks annoying for your team -- especially the Scarf set under Rain. Losing the ability to beat Scizor / Tyranitar isn't that big of a loss, especially since Keldeo uses both for setup fodder anyway.

But yeah, that's all I have for now. This is an excellent team. Good luck!

Hey, first of all, props for such an innovative team! As others have said, it seems p solid, so just a few comments from me.

I hate to say it, but I'm not sure I see what aboma is doing for the team. You do defend its usage well, but not only are all 5 other members hurt by hail, limiting set-up opportunities and reducing zoroark's effectiveness, Aboma also accentuats some kinda annoying weaknesses on the team. For example, subsalac terrakion literally 6-0s you with a single turn of set-up, which it can get vs rachi locked into anything but IH, zoroark locked into anything but fblast, forcing out aboma or thundy, and even vs starmie since both his STABs manage 70% max vs terra (40 SpA Starmie Scald vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Terrakion: 198-234 (61.11 - 72.22%) -- guaranteed 2HKO). At +2 / +1, it outspeeds and OHKOs everything on the team unfortunately.

You cite as the main reasons for keeping aboma ice shard, anti-weather (beating stuff like tenta and amoonguss), and wall-breaking ability. I wonder if you might want to try out someyhing like taunt/subtoxic gliscor, which beats dragons p well (I assume thats the main usefullness of shard), can beat both tenta and amoonguss 1-on-1, and most importantly is a great answer to terrakion. It definitely makes you weaker to rain though. An alternative is the ever-awesome NP celebi--not only is it a great mon vs rain, but with its nice bulk it can take on both dragons and terrakion easily, and it does a nice job wall-breaking as well with its ability to accrue boosts and then just break everything. Maybe a set like:

Hide(Move your mouse to the hide area to reveal the content)Show HideHide Hide

Obviously this would be a big change in the team and I'm not sure you'd want to do this anyway since you're retiring the team, just thought I'd mention it since it would help solve a few problems.

Other than that, I don't have a whole lot to add. Maybe give the double dance set a shot on thundy-t with lefties to offset hail, if you keep it, I could see that working well on this team. And yeah, I definitely support recover on mie--without it, and given hail as well, it's gonna get worn down really quickly. Reflect type doesnt even have much use without recover imo, since unboosted pursuit still does something like 20% from CBtar, meaning you accrue 60% if you switch out the following turn, and non-choiced tar is even more dangerous since they can EQ/spower the following turn. I've actually used mono-attacker mie to get both of them on one set so you could try that out (I'd suggest keeping psyshock in that case), but if not I'd just go with recover > reflect type.

@Jimbon - Thanks for the great rate! Celebi is definitely problematic on paper, Jirachi's U-turn does handle it pretty well alongside Zoroark but if it spams Thunder Wave it's a nuisance. Against better players I often just find a way to bring Thundurus in safely and pretend to be Zoroark, but yeah obviously not foolproof. I'm not sure about Blizzard > EQ on Abomasnow, especially since I'd need to be pretty sure first that Celebi didn't have HP Fire, but I'll give it a go (it lets me OHKO SubToxic Gliscor too before it starts dicking around which is nice). Last thing, I think you're definitely right about Recover > Reflect Type on Starmie, it gives me a much easier time with rainstall.

@Kidogo - I think you're overestimating SubSalac Terrakion a bit, because it can't get past Jirachi without dropping below 25% and then being taken out by Hail + Ice Shard, but you're right that it's painful to face sometimes. I don't think I can use Celebi > Abomasnow to be honest, even though it would help a LOT with Terra, because Sun in particular would just eat me alive. Definitely something to keep in mind if I start tinkering with the other team members though.

Oh yeah and mono attacker Mie (Psyshock, Recover, Rapid Spin, Reflect Type) sounds really cool, I'd considered it in passing a couple of times but I thought it'd make me too Heatran weak. If I use Landorus > Thundurus and keep EQ on Abomasnow though, Tran shouldn't be an issue (especially since opponents would take forever to catch on that Starmie didn't have a water stab). I'll test it a bit first but it sounds perfect :) Thanks!

First and only bump. I've been using the team with Recover + Reflect Type Starmie and Agility Landorus-I > Thundurus, and I feel like it's an objectively better team, but I'm losing more on the ladder because of the slight weakness to Rain. If anyone could see a way to patch that over it'd be great. All I can think of is Ferro > Jirachi and Lando-T > Lando-I/Thundurus, but that really doesn't help the team's overall synergy and direction at all and still leaves me absurdly Dragon weak.

You also use Reflect Type Starmie? I finally found someone! Great team man, luvdiskd ^^.

As for you problem with Rain, I would go with a Bulky Abomasnow to be honest. This way the synergy you already have and the coverage you have won't be too harmed.
Careful Abomasnow
178 Hp / 20 Atk / 216 SDef / 96 Spd
-Wood Hammer
-Leech Seed
-Substitute
-Ice Shard

Under a Sub you can easily set up on Politoed, Tentacruel, Double Dance Thundurus etc.
It's also an effective measure to whittle the opponent's hp and giving a good backbone to the team.

gives me more bulk and survivability and still nails an obvious Ferro switch even in Rain. Focus Punch is cool because it does good damage to virtually anything that likes to switch in on Abomasnow. Will test but again I'm pretty sure this will fit perfectly, I'll probably update the RMT with changes later. Thanks Conduit!

Okay changes are up! Landorus is god (of course), new Abomasnow and Starmie sets also working great. Rain hasn't been as problematic as I feared, Reflect Type Starmie with Recover basically laughs its starfishy ass off at Ferrothorn, which puts much less pressure on Abomasnow to do everything.

This doubles as my last bump. The team honestly feels really polished and complete (and plays incredibly) so I doubt there are many more improvements to find. Thanks everyone who's rated so far :)

Hello George, great team! I remember seeing this team ages ago on PO, it's seriously well built ofc and practically the definition of anti-metagame so kudos. The only potential problem I can see is Volcarona with Giga Drain / Hurricane, which can get past Keldeo and potentially sweep, but you can always play around that by keeping SR up (shouldn't be hard with Keldeo to lure Starmie / Tenta for Zoroark?) so it isn't much of an issue.

I think that's really all there is to say, amazing team man. Luvdisc'd :)